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a brief history of ukemby

Shaped like a kinked index finger, confined between Ghana and Togo, Ukemby is a nation about which very little is known before the seventeenth century when the first Portuguese colonist arrived. That said, there are signs of an early British presence, possibly explorers who succumbed to malaria and/or were murdered by the inhabitants who were, in fact, explorers in their own right, having trekked to Ukemby from regions that are now part of Ghana, Benin, Namibia to the south, and as far east as Tanzania.

The Portuguese used Ukemby as a slave-trading post for Europe and the Americas until the Slave Trade Act of 1807, at which point the Portuguese all but abandoned the colony, save for the criminals and undesirables they deserted upon their departure.

The Portuguese withdrawal left the region vulnerable, ultimately making way for the German Empire to invade Ukemby in 1875 and place it under military rule. Many Ukembans were subject to forced labor, building infrastructure and mining diamonds and bauxite.

Following World War I, the Germans relinquished control of the territory, and the US swooped in to fill the void. The Bureau of Ukemby Affairs was soon established and charged with creating schools to educate and assimilate the children to US standards.

Christianity was deemed the new American territory’s official religion; the worship of African gods and deities was outlawed and made punishable by flogging.

Children were forbidden to speak Wele, their native language. If discovered doing so, the parents of those children were flogged. If the infraction happened a second time, the tongues of the violators were removed. A third infraction was punishable by death.

Even so, many defiant elders continued to secretly pass on the language, customs, and traditions of their ancestors.

The American trusteeship was dissolved after World War II and Ukemby finally became an independent nation. A new constitution was adopted by referendum, and a democratic election was held in 1949, installing the country’s first African prime minister.

In his first official act upon taking office, Prime Minister Mbeke Kjodle abolished all of the assimilation laws and policies that had been put in place by the Americans, freeing the Ukemban people to openly practice their own customs and traditions. Shrine slavery was one of the traditions that ascended from the darkness back into the light.